David Strathairn –
Hotel Marigold 2, The Tempest, Good Night
and Good Luck, The Sopranos, A Map of the World, LA Confidential, Mother Night,
Dolores Claiborne, A League of Their Own, Stars and Bars, Silkwood

Sophie Marceau – Les femmes de l’ombre, The World Is Not
Enough, Braveheart

John Sessions – Legend, Filth, Merchant of Venice, The Gangs
of New York, Henry V

Why? Shakespeare

Seen: Two or three
times before. Now 15 July 2017

Few movies have me smiling from start to
finish but this one has. One of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays – by me as
well – this version skims over the darker depths of the play to revel in the
colourful lavish world of fairies in late 19th century Italy.

The whole film has a twinkle in its eye. Tucci
is a delightful Puck, Kline a sensitive yearning Bottom. The confrontation amongst
the four young lovers with one of Shakespeare’s most rapid-fire
insult-exchanging scenes, here ending in a mud lake, is hilarious.

But the stars of the show are the
bicycles. Why Hoffman chose this era for the film I don’t know but the bicycles
are a stroke of genius.